1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates, generally, to devices that make bubbles. More particularly, it relates to a device that forms spherical bubbles and positions them in a predetermined pattern.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The surface tension of water is increased by many differing agents; perhaps the least expensive and most widely available surface tension-increasing agent is found in household soap. It was discovered long ago that soapy water would form into a flat sheet if an open frame member were immersed into the water and removed therefrom; the surface tension holds the soapy water to the open frame and a flat sheet of soapy water fills the void surrounded by the frame. Causing air to impinge against the sheet of soapy water then causes the peripheral edge of the flat sheet to separate from the edges of the open frame and to reassemble into a perfect sphere.
Air is caused to impinge against the soapy water by holding the frame still and blowing against the film by human or mechanical means or by simply waving the open frame member through the air. The open frame member and its handle are often called a wand because of such latter use.
There have been numerous innovations in the field of bubble-making devices. A globular cluster of bubbles was formed by the soap bubble pipe invented by Mausolf in 1936 (U.S. Pat. No. 2,041,423 and U.S. Pat. No. Des. 98,687). This design causes three bubbles to merge with one another along large flat planes; thus, the bubbles are far from spherical because they have large flat areas where they interface with one another.
Tseng U.S. Pat. No. 2,836,926 shows a multi-bubble device where all of the bubbles form perfect spheres, but none of the bubbles touch another bubble.
Rasmussen U.S. Pat. No. Des. 263,062 shows a multi-bubble device where all of the bubbles form a perfect sphere, but the bubbles separate from one another as soon as they are formed.
Hagopian, U.S. Pat. No. Des. 139,940, shows a device that produces a single clover-shaped bubble.
Still further innovations of interest are disclosed in Joel, II U.S. Pat. No. 2, 527,935 (forms a bubble within a bubble), and Great Britain patent No. 1,329,796 (also forms a bubble within a bubble).
Although the art of bubble-forming is quite well-developed, it has not produced a wand capable of making plural bubbles, each of which forms a substantially perfect sphere, each of which remains attached to a contiguous bubble after formation, each of which substantially maintains its position relative to the other bubbles after all of the bubbles have been formed, and each of which adjoins its contiguous bubble with a flat interface area that is smaller in size than the flat interface areas heretofore known.